UNIVERSAL HARVESTER by John Darnielle
In John Darnielle’s novel UNIVERSAL HARVESTER, creepy, disturbing home video footage begins showing up spliced in VHS cassettes at the local Video Hut in a small Iowa town in the late 1990s. But things get even more interesting when the video store’s owner recognizes the barn in the footage as a farmhouse in a nearby town.

AGE OF ANGER by Pankaj Mishra
Pankaj Mishra’s v examines the roots of paranoia, hateful nationalism, xenophobia, and racism and sexism expressed online as well as across the world today. Mishra makes surprising comparisons and connections in order to show a pattern to the rise of militants throughout history, one that helps shed light on our present global state of affairs.

THE ANSWERS by Catherine Lacey
In Catherine Lacey’s novel THE ANSWERS, Mary, a young woman in New York City seeks relief for her paralyzing pain in a treatment called Pneuma Adaptive Kinesthesia, which is effective but extremely expensive—and Mary is broke. Strapped for cash, she applies for a Craigslist job listing called the “Girlfriend Experiment” by an eccentric actor looking for the perfect relationship (which involves seeking out multiple women to fulfill different roles) and ends up hired as his “Emotional Girlfriend.” readmoreremove

Delve into art, history, current events, religion, and more with these new and forthcoming nonfiction titles from Macmillan:

AGE OF ANGER: A History of the Present by Pankaj MishraTwo starred reviews! “In an impressively probing and timely work, Mishra, a novelist and cultural critic, illuminates intellectual patterns from the past 200 years that help explain our volatile present. This exploration of global unrest is dense, but it’s so well-written and informative that it manages to be highly engaging.”
— Publishers Weekly, starred review

CAUGHT IN THE REVOLUTION: Petrograd, Russia, 1917 – A World on the Edge by Helen Rappaport
From the New York Times bestselling author of THE ROMANOV SISTERS comes a gripping portrait of a St. Petersburg (then named Petrograd), at the outbreak of the Russian revolution. “An engaging if challenging look at a country’s collapse with worldwide repercussions. Informed general readers will enjoy this glimpse into history; scholars will declare it a definitive study.” — Library Journal, starred review

CHURCHILL’S MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler’s Defeat by Giles Milton
In the spring of 1939, a top-secret organization was founded in London: its purpose was to plot the destruction of Hitler’s war machine through spectacular acts of sabotage. “…Milton emphasizes the audacity and eccentricity of (Special Operations Executive) SOE’s leaders, striking the chord that makes the organization so popular with history readers.” — Booklist

GET WELL SOON: History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them by Jennifer Wright
A witty, irreverent tour of history’s worst plagues—from the Antonine Plague, to leprosy, to polio—and a celebration of the heroes who fought them. “The author’s prose is jaunty, lively, and filled with references to contemporary cultural history, making this work a well-researched page-turner. Readers will get an intense dose of history, written in a not-hard-to-swallow style.” — Library Journal

We’re seeing lots of stars for these terrific nonfiction titles:

THE NOVEL OF THE CENTURY: The Extraordinary Adventure of Les Misérables by David Bellos — 3 stars!
“A renowned French translator explores the life and legacy of Les Misérables. Anyone who loves Hugo, France, and the French language will revel in this delightful book that explains all the intimacies of 19th-century French life.”
— Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“The story of how Victor Hugo’s classic novel came to life is a challenging, complex, and utterly engrossing epic all its own.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review

“The astonishing story of a story.” — Booklist, starred review

INFERNO: A Doctor’s Ebola Story by Steven Hatch, M.D. — 3 stars!
“Hatch, a physician and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, rivetingly recounts his work in an Ebola treatment unit in Liberia at the height of the deadly West African outbreak in 2014–2015. Hatch’s chronicle is a compassionate, clear-eyed, and courageous account of how compassionate medical care proves a formidable force against the ravages of Ebola.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review

“…an outstandingly well-written, page-turning memoir…nothing short of a literary miracle. This is a masterful work that deserves sharp notice—truly, a game changer that should share a shelf with the works of Philip Gourevitch and Adam Hochschild.” — Booklist, starred review

“Hatch’s writing is elegant, and at times deeply moving as he shares the pathos of his patients, the staff of the treatment unit, and his own hopes and frustrations. Readers who are interested in global health, medical education, and biographies in general will be moved by this account for its humanity, honesty, and lucid writing.”
— Library Journal, starred reviewreadmoreremove

DROP THE BALL: Achieving More by Doing Less by Tiffany DufuOut: Feb. 14
Dufu recounts how she learned to reevaluate expectations, shrink her to-do list, and meaningfully engage the assistance of others—freeing the space she needed to flourish at work and to develop deeper, more meaningful relationships at home. Foreword by Gloria Steinem.

BOUNDLESS by Jillian Tamaki (a Top 10 pick)Out: June 6
With masterful art and evocative storytelling, Tamaki’s short stories tackle subjects from bedbugs to the addictive nature of pop culture to pornography.

PALOOKAVILLE #23 by Seth (a Top 10 pick)Out: May 30
Seth’s been writing his massive story of the Matchcard brothers and their failing fan company since 1998, and it finally winds up in this book.

THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS WRONG by Mimi PondOut: Apr. 18
Pond’s autobiographical story continues with the saga of a naive young artist working in a restaurant full of drunks, junkies, thieves, and creeps. Pond folds their tales into her own emergence as an artist in the scuzzy, low-rent war zone of late 1970s Oakland.

HOSTAGE by Guy DelisleOut: May 2
In the middle of the night in 1997, Doctors Without Borders administrator Christophe André was kidnapped by armed men and kept prisoner for three months in the Caucasus. Award-winning cartoonist Delisle recounts André’s harrowing experiences.

KNIFE: Steakhouse Meals at Home by John Tesar (a Top 10 pick)Out: May 2
Bravo’s Top Chef contestant celebrates steak in every form, with recipes for popular cuts.

RIVER COTTAGE A TO Z: Our Favourite Ingredients, & How to Cook Them by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Pam Corbin, Mark Diacono, Nikki Duffy, Nick Fisher, Steven Lamb, Tim Maddams, Gill Meller, and John WrightOut: May 2
An authoritative encyclopedia of more than 300 ingredients and 300 recipes, set to become a solid addition to the River Cottage library.

HOUSMAN COUNTRY: Into the Heart of England by Peter ParkerOut: June 20
This book investigates the particularly English sensibility of poet and classical scholar A.E. Housman (1859–1936), best remembered for the collection A SHROPSHIRE LAD, published in 1896.

TOO MUCH AND NOT IN THE MOOD: Essays by Durga Chew-BoseOut: Apr. 11
Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s April 11, 1931, entry in A WRITER’S DIARY, Chew-Bose makes a self-portrait of a young writer shutting out the din in order to find her own voice.

LENIN ON THE TRAIN by Catherine Merridale (a Top 10 pick)Out: Mar. 28
A celebrated scholar of Russian history offers an account of Lenin’s 1917 rail trip from Zurich to Petrograd, and the underground conspiracy and subterfuge that went into making it happen.

HIGH NOON: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic by Glenn FrankelOut: Feb. 21
Frankel relates the making of the 1952 American western film High Noon, and how screenwriter Carl Foreman’s concept of the film evolved from idea to first draft to final script, taking on allegorical weight as he was forced to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities about his former membership in the Communist Party.

ISABELLA OF CASTILE: Europe’s First Great Queen by Giles TremlettOut: Mar. 7
Chronicles the life of Isabella of Castile, whose marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon in 1479 united two kingdoms, setting the stage for Spain’s golden era of global dominance.

THE LOCOMOTIVE OF WAR: Money, Empire, Power, and Guilt by Peter ClarkeOut: July 18
This book studies the power of war through the trajectories of David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, John Maynard Keynes, Woodrow Wilson, and F.D.R., while examining the interplay between key figures in the context of unprecedented all-out wars (both in 1914 and 1939) and the broader dynamics of history during an extraordinary period.

AUTUMN OF THE BLACK SNAKE by William HogelandOut: May 16
Hogeland conjures up the woodland battles and hardball politics that formed the Legion of the United States, the country’s first true standing army, when in 1783 the newly independent United States found itself losing an escalating military conflict on its borderlands.

MURDER IN THE CITY: New York, 1910–1920 by Wilfried KauteOut: June 13
A time capsule of crime and murder in New York in the decade of the 1910s, documented through more than 150 photographs, medical and police reports, testimonies, and analysis from the era.

REAL LOVE: The Art of Authentic Connection by Sharon SalzbergOut: June 6
A creative toolkit of mindfulness exercises, meditation techniques, and interactive applications that will guide readers through the process of stripping away layers of habit to find a truer meaning of love.

WHAT THE DEAD HAVE TAUGHT ME ABOUT LIVING WELL by Rebecca RosenOut: Feb. 14
A spiritual medium opens up about her personal life and answers the question she is asked most often: how does your connection to the “other side” help you navigate your day-to-day world?

THE HIIT BIBLE: Supercharge Your Body and Brain by Steve BarrettOut: July 18
With HIIT (high intensity interval training) attaining widespread acceptance as a method for improving cardiovascular performance, this book aims to consolidate and demystify the science while also highlighting some of HIIT’s lesser-known benefits.

UNIVERSAL HARVESTER by John Darnielle (a Top 10 pick)Out: Feb. 7
When mysterious footage begins appearing on VHS cassettes at the local Video Hut, life in the small town of Nevada, Iowa, takes a dark turn.

THE PEOPLE WE HATE AT THE WEDDING by Grant GinderOut: June 6
A fractured family from the Chicago suburbs gathers in London for the eldest daughter’s marriage to an upper-crust Englishman, proving that the harder we strain against the ties that bind, the tighter they hold us close.

THE ANSWERS by Catherine LaceyOut: June 6
Mary scours Craigslist for fast-cash jobs and finds herself applying for the “Girlfriend Experiment,” the brainchild of an eccentric and narcissistic actor, Kurt Sky, who is determined to find the perfect relationship—even if that means paying different women to fulfill distinctive roles.

LOVER by Anna RaveratOut: Mar. 7
Kate, a senior executive at a multinational hotel company, has devoted her life to her job and her family. Catering to the needs of others comes easily to her, but now, after 10 years of marriage and two children, Kate discovers e-mails from her husband to another woman.

ENCIRCLING by Carl Frode Tiller, trans. by Barbara J. HavelandOut: Feb. 21
David has lost his memory. When a newspaper ad asks his friends and family to share their memories of him, three respond: Jon, his closest friend; Silje, his teenage girlfriend; and Arvid, his estranged stepfather. This first book of a trilogy is a psychological portrait of a man by his friends.

SO MUCH BLUE by Percival EverettOut: June 13
Kevin Pace, working on a painting that he won’t allow anyone to see, had an affair 10 years earlier with a young watercolorist in Paris. As the events of the past intersect with the present, Kevin struggles to justify the sacrifices he’s made for his art and the secrets he’s kept from his wife.

MARLENA by Julie BuntinOut: Apr. 4
Fifteen-year-old Cat’s new town in rural Michigan is lonely and off-kilter, until she meets her neighbor, the manic, beautiful, pill-popping Marlena. The story of two girls and the feral year that will cost one her life and define the other’s for decades.

THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR by Yewande OmotosoOut: Feb. 7
Hortensia James and Marion Agostino are neighbors. One is black, the other white. Both have recently been widowed, and are living with questions, disappointments, and secrets that have brought them shame. And each has something that the woman next door deeply desires.

THE STANDARD GRAND by Jay Baron NicorvoOut: Apr. 25
When an Army trucker goes AWOL before her third deployment, she meets a Vietnam vet and widower who inherited a tumbledown borscht belt resort. Converted into a halfway house for homeless veterans, the Standard—and its 2,000 acres over the Marcellus shale formation—is coveted by a Houston-based multinational company. Three violent acts are at the center of this debut.

RECKLESS DAUGHTER: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell by David YaffeOut: June 13
A biography, with dozens of in-person interviews with Mitchell, reveals the backstory behind the famous songs—from her youth on the Canadian prairie, the child she gave up for adoption, through her albums and love affairs, to the present.

FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL: A True Love Story by Peter TurnerOut: May 2
This memoir recounts a story of friendship, love and stardom that began when Turner’s former lover, Hollywood actress Gloria Grahame, collapsed in a Lancaster hotel, and he took her into his eccentric family’s home in Liverpool. Soon to be a major feature film starring Annette Bening, Jamie Bell, Julie Walters, and Vanessa Redgrave.

DOWN A DARK ROAD by Linda Castillo (a Top 10 pick)Out: July 11
Crime and religion collide in Castillo’s ninth Kate Burkholder mystery. The police chief of Painters Mill, Ohio, must track down an Amish man convicted of murdering his wife who has escaped from prison and taken his five children hostage.

ECHOES IN DEATH by J.D. Robb (a Top 10 pick)Out: Feb. 7
The 44th novel featuring Lt. Eve Dallas from Robb (the pseudonym of Nora Roberts), a tale of murder and high society in a future Manhattan, shows why she dominates bestseller lists.

WOLF ON A STRING by Benjamin Black (a Top 10 pick)Out: June 6
Black, the pen name of the Man Booker Prize–winning novelist John Banville, is the author of the Quirke mystery series set in 1950s Ireland and a Philip Marlowe pastiche, THE BLACK-EYED BLONDE. Now he turns his eye on 16th-century Prague in a tale of murder and magic.

BASED ON A TRUE STORY by Delphine de Vigan, trans. by George MillerOut: May 9
In this metafictional psychological thriller, Delphine, a successful novelist, meets L.L., an intuitive woman who promises to cure her writer’s block. As their lives become more and more entwined, L. threatens Delphine’s identity, both as a writer and as an individual.

SIX FOUR by Hideo Yokoyama, trans. by Jonathan Lloyd-DaviesOut: Feb. 7
For five days in January 1989, the parents of a seven-year-old Tokyo schoolgirl listened to the demands of their daughter’s kidnapper. They would never see their daughter again. Fourteen years later, a press officer notices an anomaly in the case.

TOWER DOWN: A Kirk McGarvey Novel by David HagbergOut: May 16
A freelance killer, code-named Al-Nassar, blows the supports on a pencil tower in Manhattan and sends it crashing down. CIA legend McGarvey believes that someone in the Saudi Arabian government is behind the attack.

AFTERLAND by Mai Der Vang (a Top 10 pick)Out Apr. 4
The 2016 Walt Whitman Award–winner devastatingly describes the Hmong exodus from Laos; the fate of thousands of refugees, including her family; and Hmong resilience in exile.